Phytoplankton Cultivating

[kobe6710]

Day 9 of Phytoplankton cultivating. Bottle on the left was harvested 2 days ago, bottle on the right is 9 days old. I feel the culture is not getting as dark as it’s supposed to. Will it become darker as I split each culture and start a new one?

I am using a blend of phyto (I believe) with 1mL f2 fertilizer, 2 parts saltwater, 1 part RODI. The lights are on a 16 hour schedule. I did not realize I should have sought out specific species of phyto and cultivated them separately. However I’ve heard one species will outcompete the others.

Also had air stones connected to each airline which have been removed today as I’ve been told not to use them.

Am I on the right track? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

 

[kobe6710]

I should also mention the culture does not have a smell (I don’t believe it crashed)

 

[dthom]

It looks like it is struggling. Yes, it should be a lot darker.

I have always done my cultures at full salinity.
Any particular reason you did "2 parts saltwater, 1 part RODI"?

 

[vicorhe]

Following this thread for advice .

I started on Saturday (4 days ago) with a jar I leave by a window with a lot of sunlight. I “think” the salinity is 1.019 (couldn’t measure below 1.021 with tropic Marin hydrometer). Also seeded with phyto blend. 0.3ml of f2 per 800ml of water. F2 blend I got from the supplier of the phyto. There was just a tint of green when I started. The color is looking decent 4 days in, I saw somewhere to harvest at 7-9 days.

Picture of mine next to the starting culture blend.

 

[dthom]

I have not ever started a culture from a blend, so I am not fully aware of how fast they will grow.
For 4 days your culture does look a little thin or light of where I would think it would be but does seem to growing!

You should see it get darker than your starter on the right hand side.
You should consistently be able to have a culture ready for harvest on day 7 but I think you will probably need to wait a little longer (day 9).

When I start cultures, I normally start with 1/3 of the starter culture and then add the other 2/3's fresh sterile saltwater.

 

[kobe6710]

It looks like it is struggling. Yes, it should be a lot darker.

I have always done my cultures at full salinity.
Any particular reason you did "2 parts saltwater, 1 part RODI"?

I took advice from an online video I should have checked other sources. Was kicking myself this morning watching a video from BRS where they did full salinity.

Is my best action just splitting this one and starting another culture using full saltwater or should I let it continue to culture?

 

[kobe6710]

I have not ever started a culture from a blend, so I am not fully aware of how fast they will grow.
For 4 days your culture does look a little thin or light of where I would think it would be but does seem to growing!

You should see it get darker than your starter on the right hand side.
You should consistently be able to have a culture ready for harvest on day 7 but I think you will probably need to wait a little longer (day 9).

When I start cultures, I normally start with 1/3 of the starter culture and then add the other 2/3's fresh sterile saltwater.

Thank you for the advice. Should I harvest the culture on the right or wait a little longer? It is currently nearing the end of day 9.

 

[Coralogy_]

I’ve been running phytoplankton cultures for the past two years and have had great success maintaining healthy growth. It’s good that you switched to airstones, using rigid airline tubing is generally the preferred method for bubbling phyto cultures.

For my setup, I mix 2-parts saltwater to 1-part RODI water and run my lighting schedule for 16 hours daily. I also add 1 ml of F/2 fertilizer per liter of water. If your culture is around 9 days old and growth seems slow or stagnant, try adding a bit more fertilizer to provide more food.

Here are a few tips I’ve found helpful:

• Sterilize your equipment thoroughly. I use rubbing alcohol to clean everything before starting new cultures.
• Start with a trusted, single-species culture. My favorites are Mercer’s Montana strains. Tetra or Nanno are both excellent choices and tend to be the easier strands of phyto to culture.
• Avoid over-diluting your starter culture. If the initial tint is too light, it can take a long time to darken. Starting with a richer tint usually produces extremely dark green phyto for me, so dense you can’t even see your hand’s shadow through the glass.

 

[kobe6710]

I’ve been running phytoplankton cultures for the past two years and have had great success maintaining healthy growth. It’s good that you switched to airstones, using rigid airline tubing is generally the preferred method for bubbling phyto cultures.

For my setup, I mix 2-parts saltwater to 1-part RODI water and run my lighting schedule for 16 hours daily. I also add 1 ml of F/2 fertilizer per liter of water. If your culture is around 9 days old and growth seems slow or stagnant, try adding a bit more fertilizer to provide more food.

Here are a few tips I’ve found helpful:

• Sterilize your equipment thoroughly. I use rubbing alcohol to clean everything before starting new cultures.
• Start with a trusted, single-species culture. My favorites are Mercer’s Montana strains. Tetra or Nanno are both excellent choices and tend to be the easier strands of phyto to culture.
• Avoid over-diluting your starter culture. If the initial tint is too light, it can take a long time to darken. Starting with a richer tint usually produces extremely dark green phyto for me, so dense you can’t even see your hand’s shadow through the glass.

Thank you very much for the information. How much f2 do you suggest adding? I started with 1mL. Is it possible to overdose f2? Thinking of adding some to both as the left bottle is super pale.

 

[kobe6710]

Following this thread for advice .

I started on Saturday (4 days ago) with a jar I leave by a window with a lot of sunlight. I “think” the salinity is 1.019 (couldn’t measure below 1.021 with tropic Marin hydrometer). Also seeded with phyto blend. 0.3ml of f2 per 800ml of water. F2 blend I got from the supplier of the phyto. There was just a tint of green when I started. The color is looking decent 4 days in, I saw somewhere to harvest at 7-9 days.

Picture of mine next to the starting culture blend.

Very cool goodluck!!

 

[Coralogy_]

Thank you very much for the information. How much f2 do you suggest adding? I started with 1mL. Is it possible to overdose f2? Thinking of adding some to both as the left bottle is super pale.

How large is your container?

 

[TJ42]

I am using normal tank salinity on 3 separate cultures. I am doing a single strain and not a blend. It has been pretty successful so far. I let them go about 3 weeks before harvesting and it is very dark when I do. I fertilize once a week.

 

[kobe6710]

Thank you very much for the information. How much f2 do you suggest adding? I started with 1mL. Is it possible to overdose f2? Thinking of adding some to both as the left bottle is super pale.

How large is your container?

32 ounce mason jar- approximately 1L

 

[kobe6710]

I am using normal tank salinity on 3 separate cultures. I am doing a single strain and not a blend. It has been pretty successful so far. I let them go about 3 weeks before harvesting and it is very dark when I do. I fertilize once a week.

Okay thank you for the info. I think I may run mine for longer than 7 days as I’m already seeing a deeper green in both after adding some f2

 

[Hawaiian AQ]

1ml f2 per liter

 

[Coralogy_]

Thank you very much for the information. How much f2 do you suggest adding? I started with 1mL. Is it possible to overdose f2? Thinking of adding some to both as the left bottle is super pale.

How large is your container?

32 ounce mason jar- approximately 1L

Yeah, I think adding another ml of fertilizer could help darken the color over the next 7-10 days. IDK that you can overdose fertilizer, but I wouldn't recommend adding an absurd excess amount of fertilizer, especially if you'll be adding this in your tank.
I think 1ml of fertilizer per liter each week until you get a desired density is appropriate.

 

[Hawaiian AQ]

I am using normal tank salinity on 3 separate cultures. I am doing a single strain and not a blend. It has been pretty successful so far. I let them go about 3 weeks before harvesting and it is very dark when I do. I fertilize once a week.

3 weeks? What species are you cultivating?

 

[Hawaiian AQ]

Unless you’re doing continual harvest you shouldn’t be adding more fertilizer as it’s coming up as you risk contamination. I’m presuming all of your are doing batch culture which means you add fertz once until you harvest or upscale/split. Based on what I’m reading in the comments, it seems like all of your cultures are lagging or have crashed with a mild rebound. This could be from a number of reasons but more than likely the largest factor is your source material. Bottled up stuff you buy isn’t good for source for what you’re trying to do. What they sell you is the end result of mass culture and it’s not wise to use algae at this stage for culture since there’s a high probability of contamination. I would recommend working off plates from certified sources, transferring off those to 100ml test tubes x 6-8 tubes. Have these in a rack. Select from the TT Your best ones and use those for upscaling to larger vessels for harvest. You can keep splitting your test tubes too in almost perpetual fashion with good hygiene practice.

 

[vicorhe]

Thanks for all the insightful input!

Full salinity makes sense to me, I’m thinking I can dose phyto by replace tank water with phyto at full salinity to avoid salinity creep over time. Do people do that?

I’ll look into single strain starting cultures. Any recommendations from online retailers or even local to the greater Los Angeles area would be appreciated!

I don’t need to harvest weekly. Two weeks makes more sense for me, would prefer to stick to natural sun light as the source to avoid more equipment to worry about. Glad to see people harvesting at larger intervals.

 

[Hawaiian AQ]

Thanks for all the insightful input!

Full salinity makes sense to me, I’m thinking I can dose phyto by replace tank water with phyto at full salinity to avoid salinity creep over time. Do people do that?

I’ll look into single strain starting cultures. Any recommendations from online retailers or even local to the greater Los Angeles area would be appreciated!

I don’t need to harvest weekly. Two weeks makes more sense for me, would prefer to stick to natural sun light as the source to avoid more equipment to worry about. Glad to see people harvesting at larger intervals.

This isn’t what I use because we are commercial but his may be affordable and work well for your application. They also sell useful literature and equipment for microalgae culture. This is Frank Hoffs business…founder of of Instant Ocean

Liquid Microalgae Cultures – Florida Aqua Farms